The invention relates to a process to prevent the formation of adhesives when annealing steel band having a low carbon content. Such process uses an inert gas consisting of nitrogen and hydrogen and has the phases of heating up, holding time and cooling.
Steel band is annealed in the form of tight coils in pot furnaces, hood-type furnaces or continuous roller furnaces. An N.sub.2 -H.sub.2 gas mixture or else an exothermic gas is normally employed as the inert gas. Adhesives are often formed when these steel bands are annealed.
These band adhesives are influenced by many factors. The main ones are: the geometry and dimensions of the surface roughness, the type of inert gas, the contact pressure, the temperature and the time.
The literature speculates that adhesives are formed at the site of the steel surface where elevated pressure and a relative movement of the spirals occur during the cooling stage. As a result, adhesion and diffusion phenomena take place.